Greetings, folks! If you haven't noticed, Netflix now has a little spot for the Top 10 movies/shows in the country. For the past few days, I couldn't help but notice that Freaks was consistently in the mix.
It seems the overwhelming majority of the responses to this movie have been very positive, so I had to give it a shot.
Here's how Netflix describes the "mind-bending, ominous" film:
The movie begins by introducing us to Chloe, who is peeking out of the blinds. She sees an ice cream truck and a bunch of birds hovering in the sky, but they're not moving. Just there in the sky, motionless. I'm intrigued.
We also meet Chloe's father, Henry. He kind of scolds her for looking out of a window, which is obviously against the house rules.
At night, Chloe hears some weird noises in her closet. When she opens the door, a woman is sitting in there. Chloe screams and runs away, which seems like the right move.
Chloe is still scared of the woman in her closet (who is suddenly gone when her dad comes in), so she asks her pops to stay. He says he'll hang but he doesn't want to doze off because "too much time goes by outside when I'm asleep." Hmm, so, is time not moving outside? That would explain the statue birds in the sky.
The next morning, Chloe wakes up, sees an ice cream truck outside, and watches a little girl buy ice cream. Chloe repeatedly whispers for the girl (named Harper) to bring her ice cream.
The ice cream man spots Chloe in the window and just stares and smiles.
Harper brings (gross/melted) ice cream to Chloe's front door.
Henry rushes over to shut down this melted ice cream transaction and he's trying to figure out how Harper knows his daughter's name. I'm trying to figure that out too...
Henry thinks Chloe must be sneaking outside or something if the neighbor girl knows her name, so he locks her in the closet as punishment. Seems a tad harsh.
Henry later apologizes and tells Chloe he'll go out and get her ice cream if she promises to never open the door and go outside.
Henry is frantic when he returns home. He's checking outside to make sure he wasn't followed, he's got a wound, he's covered in blood, and guess what...
CHLOE IS LIKE, "WHERE'S MY BEN & JERRY'S AT, YOU BUM?"
OK, Henry was definitely freezing time because when he passes out (from all the bleeding/forgetting ice cream), his body appears to release its hold and everything starts moving again. Surely Chloe will go check on her ailing father, right?
WRONG. Chloe goes outside and hits up the ice cream man.
So, Chloe got in the ice cream truck with this man, named Mr. Snowcone, and they drove to the park, where he's trying to see if she has powers. He pushes her high on the swing until she's scared, then he pinches her to try to see if her anger sparks a reaction. Mr. Snowcone also knows Chloe's parents and seems to be her grandpa? Eventually a cop comes by to make sure nothing weird is happening.
The situation quickly escalates and the cop winds up pointing a gun at Mr. Snowcone. Chloe repeatedly tells the cop to "go away," and he does just that. So, we learn that one of her special powers is making people do what she tells them to.
Mr. Snowcone takes Chloe home and she pretty much goes right back to saying mean shit to her father.
The woman Chloe saw in her closet is her mom, apparently. She sees her again and they have a brief interaction, though I'm not sure how it is that they're seeing each other.
UPDATE: Chloe is still being very mean to her father.
The "I wish you would die" stung. Henry's feelings are in shambles.
After another argument, Chloe commands her father to go to sleep, steals money from his stash, and heads off with Mr. Snowcone. They go to a diner to meet with some police agent.
Things go awry in the diner and we learn that Mr. Snowcone has invisibility powers, which he uses to help himself and Chloe evade the police.
After their botched meeting at the diner, Mr. Snowcone is driving Chloe home, when Henry pops up and boy is he pissed.
There are some revelations: Mr. Snowcone is Chloe's grandpa/Henry's father-in-law. Henry has been forming a time bubble around their house to keep Chloe safe. This time bubble is only in place when he's awake. Henry believes Chloe's mom was killed during some attack, after which they went into hiding.
Henry has a plan in place where he's going to give the neighbors a shit ton of money and they're going to let Chloe live with them and pretend to be normal.
The introductions go poorly. Chloe uses her powers and freaks the neighbors out. Grand opening, grand closing.
Back at home, Chloe sees her mom in her closet. She's not actually dead, she's being held captive. Chloe and her mama hang out for a bit and they have a sweet moment, until a guard comes by and snatches her away.
Chloe's manifestations of her mom become even more real, and now she's visible to Henry and Mr. Snowcone.
Chloe takes her powers to another level, possessing one of the guards she sees in the manifestation of her mother and helping her break free.
Chloe's mom is still trying to break out of the facility she's being held in. Once outside of its walls, she can use her powers. We don't know what her abilities are, but it seems safe to assume she's capable of some stuff the Avengers would be interested in.
Meanwhile, the neighbors snitched, so now a special agent has stopped by the house. Henry can't freeze time outside of their bubble because it'll stop Chloe's mom from being able to escape, so he's got to stall the agent.
The stalling isn't going too well, but Mr. Snowcone made himself invisible, snuck behind the agent, and he has her gun pointed at her.
The agent manages to get the gun and fires a shot that hits Henry in the stomach. Mr. Snowcone makes himself invisible before she can shoot him.
The agent goes to shoot Chloe, but this floating pool of blood appears in front of her.
IT TURNS OUT MR. SNOWCONE STOOD IN FRONT OF CHLOE, TAKING THE BULLET FOR HER.
Chloe takes control of the agent and makes her shoot herself in the head.
Henry musters up some strength and holds off another set of police, giving Chloe time to help her mother escape.
Chloe's mother finally makes it out of the facility, flying away and blowing the place up as she makes her exit.
Henry uses his last bit of strength to carry Chloe out of their house just as a missile hits it.
Chloe's mother tracks her down, picks her up from rubble, and they agree to start a new life together, flying away. RIP Henry. THE END.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
RECENTLY WATCHED:
6 Underground on Netflix
The Mandela Effect on Amazon
The Witch on Netflix
The Hole in the Ground on Netflix